OSWEGO, N.Y. -- Catherine Schmitt was leaving an all-night restaurant in Milwaukee at 1 a.m. in 1981 when two men walked right in front of her car, then moved on.

She thought it was strange, but brushed it off. She drove to her apartment complex a couple miles away, being careful about her surroundings as she always was when she was alone.

Schmitt, a 21-year-old waitress at the time, parked at the complex and got out of her car. One of the two men was there, standing right behind her. She hadn't seen his vintage yellow Mustang pull in behind her because he'd turned off the headlights, she said.

"Excuse me, can you help me find someone?" the man asked.

He suddenly wrapped his arm around her throat from behind, choking her, and covered her mouth with his other hand, Schmitt said. He started dragging her to his car, which was blocking hers in, she said.

"As I'm watching this happening, I notice that the guy who's in the passenger seat, he's climbing over to the driver's side," Schmitt said. "He opened the door. It was Michael who had me."

The man who grabbed her was Michael Bohrer, she later found out. He's one of three new possible suspects in the kidnapping of Heidi Allen in Oswego County 13 years after Schmitt was grabbed. Allen's body has never been found and she is presumed dead.

Schmitt didn't know either Bohrer or the other man in the car, his brother John Bohrer.

As Michael dragged her, she tried to scream. He started punching her in the mouth, Schmitt said.

Catherine Schmitt in 1984, three years after Michael Bohrer abducted her in Milwaukee.Provided photo

"The whole time he was hitting me," she said. "My mouth was all bruised up and cut up inside. And I was choking. I could hardly breathe. But as soon as I was able to scream, I screamed."

When he got her to the car, Michael tried to push her inside as John was pulling on her legs from inside, she said. They had the front seat of the two-door car folded forward and were trying to get her into the back seat, she said.

She kept screaming and pushing against the roof of the car. The two men had her off the ground and partly in the car. In the midst of it, she had a horrible thought.

"All of a sudden it dawned on me: Are they going to rape me?" she said.

The screaming apparently attracted attention, and someone nearby must have turned on the lights in their apartment, Schmitt said, because the Bohrers suddenly gave up.

"Let go of her, let's get out of here," John Bohrer told his brother, according to Schmitt.

Michael Bohrer was charged with battery and unlawful imprisonment. He pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years of probation. The charges against his brother were dropped, John Bohrer said.

Schmitt had one purpose in mind when she pressed charges, she said.

"My biggest fear was that they would eventually be able to do this to someone," she said.

Gary Thibodeau is lead into Oswego County Courthouse Wednsday, Jan. 14, 2015 on the fourth day of his hearings to determine if he can get a new trial in the Heidi Allen kidnapping case. Thibodeau, 61, was convicted in 1995 of the kidnapping and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He has been in prison 20 years.Gary Walts | gwalts@syracuse.com

She hadn't known until Friday that Bohrer was a possible suspect in the Allen kidnapping. The similarities between the two cases prompted a lawyer for Gary Thibodeau to try to introduce the evidence about the Milwaukee case in court.

Thibodeau's the only person convicted in Allen's kidnapping. He maintains his innocent and has asked a judge to overturn the conviction based on new evidence implicating Bohrer and two other men.

Bohrer has denied any involvement in Allen's kidnapping. He has not been charged.

Thibodeau's lawyer, Lisa Peebles, has asked acting Oswego County Judge Daniel King to let her call Schmitt as a witness when the hearing on Thibodeau's request resumes Tuesday.

"I didn't want the same thing to happen to someone who might not have been as strong as I was," Schmitt said.

Schmitt was 5' 7" and was pretty strong in 1981, she said.

"I kept thinking, Oh my God, had I been smaller and not as strong, they would've been able to get me into that car," she said. "I don't think they anticipated me being quite as strong as I was."

She remembers the different looks of the Bohrers. John was clean-shaven with features that stood out more. Michael had a scraggly beard and dirty-looking hair, she said. Michael seemed to be the one in charge, and his brother seemed to just be going along, she said.

The attack seemed planned, Schmitt said. The way the Bohrers followed her with their headlights off from the restaurant was one indication, she said.

"Just the way they went about everything, I just thought, I don't think that I'm the only person they tried to do this to," she said.
Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 315-470-2187.